The River Wild

The River Elwy at St Asaph

Yesterday I caught up with " field " jobs.
I bought corn and layers pellets, picked up shavings for the hen houses and arranged to pick up a vaccination certificate for William from the vets.
The vet surgery doesn't open until 6 pm and I arrived in the pretty town of St Asaph at 5.30 pm so I parked near the river and took the dogs for a walk.
So far so good.
When I take the dogs out , Winnie and George are left off the leads. If another dog comes into view I automatically lead George again as he has a tendency to bark , but Winnie, being so placid , is left to roam. William, with his habit of running off is always kept with me.
Have you got that?
Anyhow we had a lovely walk around the flood plain and ended up underneath the ancient arches of the town's bridge. The bridge over the River Elwy.
There is a concrete wall by the river bank with a drop of a few feet down to the water, and being a nosey kind of terrier George walked over and stood looking out at the view.
Before I could stop her, Winnie decided to join him and in her usual bull-at-a-gate fashion barged him out of the way. He fell into the river with a loud plop followed bizarrely by Winnie who hit the water with a massive splash.
I panicked.
Now being summer, the river is neither too deep or too fast flowing, but it was deep enough for both dogs to be swimming, so I raced to the side of the wall and looked down. Poor George , he was yelping and trying to scramble up the concrete wall like a mad thing, so I grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and dragged him up out of the water.
It was only seconds, but when I turned to see where Winnie was, I saw her half swimming half walking twenty feet away in the centre of the river.
She started to disappear down the Elwy puffing like a steam train.....she looked like a galleon in full sail.
I ran down my side of the river calling for her, but I think she was too preoccupied to understand commands and started to zig zag towards the opposite bank perhaps thirty or forty feet away so I yelled to a man walking a Labrador on the opposite bank to see if he could help.
Bless him, the guy jumped into the drama like a good un and started to yell " Winnie WINNIE!" at the top of his lungs. After giving his dog to another passerby.  he climbed down the bank waving
at her like a real trouper.

It was all getting a bit surreal.
Winnie by this time had found a shallow part of the river and was standing stock still with her worried face poking up out of the water. She looked like a knackered hippo.
Gallantly the man stepped into the water ( IN SHOES!) and called again to her and this time she responded, waded over to him and allowed him to pull her to the opposite bank where she threw herself onto the grass like a diva.

These animals will be the death of me.

Still in bed, exhausted this morning

Albert by her side

So I will now publically thank Mr Derek Hughes , the man who ruined his shoes and gave himself a hernia saving an old bulldog from her own stupidity.....
I owe you a pint.